Sweet Vanilla Kisses
by Fraxinelle
Summary: A new creature's been causing confusion in Hogwarts! And who else is there to clear up everyone's minds but Luna Lovegood herself. But is that why she's kissing everyone on the cheek except for Neville? One-shot! HappyBelatedBirthday to thebritish-elle!


_Before I get thrown to the sharks I'd first like to say how terribly sorry I am for not updating anything at all recently. It makes me feel really bad but with everything I need to do falling on my head, I haven't had the time to write as much._

_ However here is a story that is dedicated to my lovely best friend _thebritish-elle_ (I know you'd read this and laugh dear and I'm _so _sorry it's late) for her birthday last week. Yes, its been a week and I'm even late for her birthday so err.. I do hope all of you think I worked hard on this._

_Go easy on me please! I don't usually write Neville and Luna and this is my first time but this is most definitely a one-shot._

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><p><strong>Sweet Vanilla Kisses<strong>

Neville Longbottom woke up knowing that this would be a normal morning where he would sit by his friends, eat a delicious breakfast and leave for classes like he always did and that was an odd comfort for him. He was never a fan of the out-of-the -ordinary life but that didn't necessarily mean he enjoyed being the way he is, it's just that the ordinary life seemed to suit him just fine though that would be least expected from Hogwarts. He walked towards the Gryffindor table and sat at his usual place near the Golden Trio.

"Good Morning, Neville." Hermione Granger greeted him with a smile. He politely replied and greeted the others as well. After a silent moment they continued to eat breakfast and returned to their previous discussion while he only spoke out some comments and opinions when it was needed.

"Good Morning, everyone" Luna surprised them with an adorable smile as she sat next to Neville— as it were normal to do so— always enjoying a good visit to the usually interesting Gryffindor table.

Now, Neville knew Luna. She was bright as she was in Ravenclaw. She had a perfect smile and blonde hair that made her look younger than her actual age. She was graceful and usually perfect— that is in his eyes. She was everything he had ever wanted in his life and he could very well say he was falling for her.

"G-Good Morning, Luna." Neville shyly stuttered out a reply to her. Hermione, Ron, and Harry shared knowing looks across the table but decided to keep it to themselves.

"The muffins look really good today." She spoke conversationally, taking one and happily eating it while humming a soft tune.

Before anyone else got to reply, the owls had arrived and started dropping envelopes everywhere. Neville, Ron & Luna got a letter each while Hermione got _The Daily Prophet _from her regular subscription.

They were all reading their posts when Luna gasped loudly in shock. The Gryffindor table all looked at her, expecting her to say what was so bad and when no answer was given, went about their early morning activities as if nothing had happened. She quickly finished what was left of her breakfast, grabbed her things and was about to run out, ignoring all of the weird stares the rest were giving her. She spoke quickly and in such a rush that they almost didn't catch what she said.

"Father's sent me news about a new creature here at Hogwarts! I have to find out more about it!" Luna spoke innocently, with an air around her that said there wasn't anything remotely wrong with that sentence. Her eyes were wide with the excitement of a child on Christmas morning and had an adorable grin on her face.

After that quick explanation Luna started kissing almost everyone on the cheek— almost everyone because she had kissed them except Neville. Before he could ask anything else, she had run out the double doors that made the entryway to the Great Hall.

"Bloody hell, what was that all about?" Ron questioned aloud, shocked, his eyes going wide. He was holding the cheek where Luna had given him a peck that Hermione had responded with glare at him and a hit using her newspaper. Everyone else showed confused stares at one another, their faces mimicking Ron's but all Neville could think of was, _what _was_ that all about?_

oOo

Through the course of the day, it had been like that. Neville had seen Luna randomly kissing people on the cheek for most of the morning in between classes and she saw him as well. She waved at him but didn't doing anything more as if it weren't all that important for him to be the only one she hadn't given a kiss to.

Was he really that unlikeable? He thought to himself. She did seem like the type to not bother with popularity but today she made it look like it and he would only wonder _why_? These thoughts kept circling his head like vouchers waiting for their dying prey. He was taken out of his reverie in shock when Seamus elbowed him in the ribs and moved his stare away from the window to Professor McGonagall who was calling for his attention for the fifth time.

"Mr. Longbottom! I'd take it kindly that you pay attention in my class instead of daydreaming about nonsense because this will be in your O.W.L.s" She reprimanded him sternly. His fellow Gryffindors were staring at him oddly as well.

"Yes, Professor" He replied curtly and stood up straighter, trying to keep thoughts of a certain blonde away from his head and failing miserably.

oOo

Noon came too soon as he found himself walking with his two friends, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan to the Great Hall once again. They had just come from a History of Magic lesson with Professor Binns and were incredibly sleepy as they normally were on a Wednesday. They were last to leave as always.

"Shouldn't we be learning more about the present and enough about the past?" Dean complained while suppressing a yawn.

"Yeah, because what you were doing with your food this morning would make such an interesting lesson." Seamus replied sarcastically with a dramatic roll of his eyes. He was arching his back and stretching his unused arms.

"Take that back you prat!" Dean exclaimed and ran after the now escaping Seamus all around their table.

Usually Neville would be attempting to stop them but he himself was tired and his mind was full of swirling thoughts of Luna kissing someone politely on the cheek... He made a sudden pause. That wasn't his imagination. He walked a few paces backwards and saw that Luna had indeed just kissed Draco on the cheek. Draco responded weirdly and stared at Harry with an odd look in his eyes but all he could concentrate on was Luna skipping towards him.

"Neville!" She called to him. "Did you see that? Did you see what I just did?" She looked up at him with an enthusiastic gleam I her eyes that made whatever he had planned to ask melt away in his head. He nodded and gulped, hoping he looked like he wasn't at all affected. Thankfully she didn't show any signs of that.

"Let's go then. The others must be waiting." She took a big leap towards him, grabbed his wrist and dragged him to the Gryffindor Table, skipping. Neville was flushed to his ears but didn't say anything as he saw the two familiar bodies hunched over the table and talking in quick and hushed tones.

"So how do we go about this...? No, no, not like that... Well maybe..." he heard them both muttering. Once they heard Neville and Luna's footsteps getting nearer, they froze and put on their best innocent faces possible.

"Hello Neville, Luna, fine day isn't it?" Hermione acknowledged them trying not to giggle.

"I suppose" Neville answered awkwardly while Ron waved at them both.

"I see that those silly little Burglows have left you two." Luna piped up and Hermione did what she usually would in situations like this.

"Oh yes, they left us just fine" she played along and with that, the two sat in the seat closest to them. A few minutes passed when suddenly Harry burst in looking haggard. His hair was messier than usual, his glasses askew and his robes were ruffled. He was breathing heavily and took huge gulps of pumpkin juice.

"Slow down there mate! You look like you just ran a marathon!" Ron exclaimed, patting Harry on the back.

"It feels like it." He panted out and slumped in his seat next to Ron. His head was on the table while his arms tried to cover his head as if he were blocking his thoughts.

"What did you do?" Ron asked him but all Harry could do was shake his head

"Leave him be, Ron. I'm quite sure that Harry would tell you everything later on." Hermione ordered him. Ron didn't reply to that and actually followed her orders which didn't happen on a regular occasion because Ron would normally tell her otherwise and they'd end up in a short squabble but that wasn't the case today.

Neville and Luna silently watched the exchanged and continued eating their meals but sometimes Neville couldn't stop taking sideway glances at the adorable blonde beside him. He had to get this crush thing worked out and fast.

oOo

Throughout the rest of the day, Neville didn't really mind the small fact that he might have been the only one left un- kissed. No, certainly not, definitely, absolutely and most certainly not. Well... maybe a bit he added as an afterthought when he saw Luna seated by the windowsill of the library. Classes had just finished and the students were free to do what they wish.

Luna had some of the afternoon sunlight around her and she looked more than just a tad angelic. He tried his all not to stare and good thing he was able to because she had just gently dropped her book when she saw him.

She waved at him and his plan of going in and out of the library as quickly as possible disappeared from his brain because now, the question that was trying to escape from his mouth couldn't be held back anymore.

"Err... Luna?" He started weirdly like he almost always did talking to her.

"Good evening, Neville. Was there something you wanted to ask?" She glanced up at him.

"Well... yes, but you don't have to answer it if you don't want to and maybe you don't want to answer it at all right about now—" He looked at her and stopped. She was looking at him with a peaceful smile and was eagerly waiting for him to finish.

Now or never, Neville, he thought to himself and asked her what may be the stupidest question he had ever bothered to ask.

"Why didn't you kiss me?" He closed his eyes tightly looking like he was expecting some physical blow to hit him from the side.

"I'm sorry., but honestly what are you talking about?" She didn't say that in any mean way that somebody else normally would. When he was able to open his eyes, she was already on her feet with her head was cocked to the side. Her eyebrows were slightly scrunched up and she looked really confused.

"You see, y-you've practically give every person a kiss on the cheek today e-except for me and I-I was wondering why?" He managed to stutter out, hoping that a big hole would just swallow him up instead of seeing Luna's face at the moment.

Instead she giggled. Not in an insulting kind of way but just a joyous giggle that made him warm up all over. He stared at her for the next few minutes that she was like that because no person at all would look away from something as cute as that.

"Neville, the Burglows couldn't get you even if they tried." She giggled again when she saw his shocked expression.

"Err... What?" He got out before she was in another fit of giggles.

"You see Neville, Burglows are magical creatures that seem to enter your brain and hide from you what you truly love. They're like a fog and when they're in your brain, they try to give you an illusion of what or who you should love. Father sent me a note earlier today, remember? It was saying that the only way to stop them was a kiss on the cheek." She explained looking like everything she said was common knowledge to all wizards.

"And you didn't kiss me because...?" He trailed on, hoping to somehow get on the same page as she was.

"Because I love you, silly. And something tells me you feel the same. The Burglows couldn't get inside anybody that never hid anything from the person they loved." She blushed slightly while saying it because she'd never mentioned it aloud. Neville however was blushing to his roots but she continued.

"Well that's my theory. I knew I liked you, a lot actually and I think we've maybe formed a bond— supposing that you haven't ever needed to hide anything from me or showed me any signs of loathing— that made the Burglows instantly vanish from the two of our heads when they entered," She snapped her fingers "just like that." She smiled cheekily at Neville.

Neville remained quiet for a while until her eyes widened at a small realization she had just made.

"That is, only if you like me. I'd understand if you didn't, you know and it's perfectly understandable—"but she was cut off by the Gryffindor's lips capturing her own.

It was a short kiss. A sweet little peck but it made all the difference to Neville, because he finally did it. He finally kissed the girl of his dreams and _he_, Neville Longbottom, was _brave_ enough to do it.

"That was because you're too adorable sometimes that I can't stand it. I really do like you too, Luna. A lot. " Neville explained shyly looking at his feet, both of their cheeks tinted with pink.

Luna smiled and intertwined her fingers with his, her eyes shining brightly. Before Neville knew it, she had stood on her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"Just to make sure that none of the Burglows would ever enter your head." Her cheeks were burning but she didn't care. They both smiled at each other, hand in hand and walked to the Great Hall.

Now Neville knew more about Luna. He knew that she was naturally like this; amazing and the simple definition of _cute. _She was playful and a bit shy. She was Luna Lovegood, the girl he was in love with and the girl who tasted like vanilla. And he was never letting her go.

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><p><em>There! My first shot wasn't so bad.. I think.. I hope it wasn't. Err.. Enlighten me please? Bad or not? Worth reading or should be thrown in the fire?<em>

_Thank you so much for reading this piece of.. whatever it is..._

_Reviews are like cupcakes and I love them. Pretty please ease me a bit and tell me how it went?_


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